• Gladiator

  • Galactic Gladiators, Book 1
  • By: Anna Hackett
  • Narrated by: Vivienne Leheny
  • Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (379 ratings)

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Gladiator  By  cover art

Gladiator

By: Anna Hackett
Narrated by: Vivienne Leheny
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Publisher's summary

Fighting for love, honor, and freedom on the galaxy's lawless outer rim...

When Earth space marine Harper Adams finds herself abducted by alien slavers off a space station, her life turns into a battle for survival. Dumped into an arena on a desert planet on the outer rim, she finds herself face to face with a big, tattooed alien gladiator...the champion of the Kor Magna Arena.

A former prince abandoned to the arena as a teen, Raiden Tiago has long ago earned his freedom. Now he rules the arena, but he doesn't fight for the glory, but instead for his own dark purpose - revenge against the Thraxian aliens who destroyed his planet. Then his existence is rocked by one small, fierce female fighter from an unknown planet called Earth.

Harper is determined to find a way home, but when she spots her best friend in the arena - a slave of the evil Thraxian aliens - she'll do anything to save her friend...even join forces with the tough alpha male who sets her body on fire. But as Harper and Raiden step foot onto the blood-soaked sands of the arena, Harper worries that Raiden has his own dangerous agenda...

©2016 Anna Hackett (P)2017 Anna Hackett

What listeners say about Gladiator

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Unbelievable good.

I loved the premise of the story and I was hooked from the beginning. Vivienne Leheny was amazing. She had a specific voice for all the character s and it follows for the next 2 installments. She totally brought the book alive for me. Her performance only enhanced the entire story. I hope she doing the rest of the series! Since I started listening as well as reading many of my favorite books I've come to realize the person preforming can either ruin a story for me or truly make it an extraordinary experience. To my delight Ms. Leheny made it an awesome experience.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Damn that Gladiator!

This is a hidden gem for any romance fan who loves an dominant leads.. I will say that the whole sci-fi part of it is a bit flawed but hey... who am i to judge what other species look like or how technology works beyond earth's realm? Personally, I liked the fast pace of the book. I liked that although there was romance, there was a fascinating story line that came along with it. The book has it all, humor, sex, sadness, revenge and of course HEA,

I haven't listened to Vivienne's narration before and i am glad that I liked her. She is able to give each character a different tone which made this reading more interesting. She isn't the best but she is good.

My recommendation: grab the book if it's on sale. It won't disappoint.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Gladiators, her me roar for am a fearless female

Theirs story was fantastic. It had your no ness Earth heroine with a hard outer shell but with a big heart. Let's not for get the big alien alpha gladiators,which are a site to behold. Mix these ingredients together and you get one adventurers,explosive,ball of chemistry me fire between the gladiator champion and the new female comer. Together their destiny are intertwined leaving you cheering and hoping for a Happy every ending. Narration was great. Can't wait for the next book.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

WOW! What a ride!

This is the second series by Anna Hackett that I've started and I love them both. Gladiator has a totally different feel than her Hell Squad series that I can chalk up to the talent of the author and the talented narrators she had reading each series. Gladiator, the first in the Galactic Gladiators series is a syfy adventure romance involving an alien abduction, tough humans and alien hero's to the rescue. As with all of Ms. Hackett's series, the story is action packed with plenty of steamy scenes in between. Vivenne Leheny does an excellent job of bringing the characters with a great talent for voices.
I would definitely recommend this series to anyone.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Yeah...

It's a little to cheesy for me. The heroine makes way too many rash decisions. I understand its a romance set in another galexy, but it's hard to believe that someone would be that dimwitted. I just couldn't take the MULTIPLE idiotic decisions she made. It bits because I really wanted to like this one. The narrator was perfect with her performance as well.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Mehh

I didn't hate it. I didn't love it either. After reading the Eon Warriors series and the 1st two being phenomenal, I was hopeful about this. It wasn't great.

The dialogue was almost childish. The characters proclaimed things out loud that the story is just supposed to tell and you, the reader just know. Authors typically don't have the hero say "I only care about myself" when he saves other people. We, as readers just know he's a brooding hero who holds people at arms length and pretends he doesn't care when he really does. They typically don't proclaim those things out loud to make absolutely sure readers know. Or how about a heroine who had shitty parents. We already know she has abandonment issues and has always felt alone. She typically doesn't proclaim out loud in the last 10% of the book "I've always been alone. Even when I had my family I was alone." It. was. fucking. cringey.

The heroine puts up like a 2 second token resistance and immediately gives in as this guy is telling her he hates wanting her. Like this guy didn't have to work for it or chase her at all. She was all wet panties and yes please the moment he touched her after a one time protest of "well then stay away if you dont like it". It could've been much better if after saying that..she WALKED AWAY FROM HIM.

There was just alot of cringe here.

Was it awful? No. In fact I'll give another one in the series a shot. I don't think it'll be the next one as the chick sounds like she'll be a doormat and I cannot read anything in which the heroines a weak ass doormat. I will try one of the ones later on the series though.

With all that being said, I think Anna Hackett is a kick ass author who's an extremely talented story weaver and teller. This one just wasn't my cup of tea. I do think I'm in the minority though and would recommend anyone else to give this one a shot as I think most would really enjoy it. I'm just a picky bitch who needs a bad ass heroine in all ways. I prefer the heroine being the reluctant one and the hero having to break her down not vice versa. After years of reading PNR and Scifi romance one thing I've learned is that, unfortunately too many female readers love weak heroines. Not that this gal was weak. (Case in point, there's an actual list on GR of top 50 scifi books in which the hero doesn't want the heroine at first, but no list of the reverse. This makes me angry. Soooo many women swooning over women begging men to be with them. I found this list searching for the opposite.) She was bad ass in most ways. She just wasn't "enough" for this picky asshole.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

FIRST BUT NOT LAST

If you could sum up Gladiator in three words, what would they be?

I want one.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Raiden. He was so masculine, tough and dangerous but had a very soft spot for her.

Which scene was your favorite?

After being tricked into trying to save her friend, the Gaden crew showed up just in time to save her.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes and did.

Any additional comments?

This was my first Anna Hacket book but not my last. As soon as I finished this one, I started Warrior. I intend to go through all of her audible books within the next week. We'll see. Also, the narrator was excellent!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Decent Sci-if romance!

This is the first book in a new series by author Anna Hackett and it was a good listen. Basically, the story is about a group of women from Earth who worked on a space station near Jupiter when a bunch of bad aliens came through a temporary wormhole and abducted them. When they come to, they find out they are on a desert planet where they will be expected to perform as gladiators for sport. The heroine is a military woman who does have some training in combat and she does really well in the first contest and attracts the attention of the fiercest gladiator in the arena. The narration was good, but I feel it would have been better performed by a male narrator as well.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
Listener received this title free

Beating the odds!

Harper and Raiden may literally be from different worlds, but they have so much in common that cements their connection. For instance, both have were taken into captivity to fight, both have been traumatized by the loss of their family, both have the desire to succeed and both champion the underdog!! I like that both are realistic in their expectations and choose to adapt and move forward instead of wallowing in self pity or defeatism!! This was a great story about beating the odds and finding love!! Vivienne Leheny wonderfully performed the cast of characters and made this an enjoyable listening experience!! Can’t wait for more!!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Action, Romance, Suspense

This book has a little bit of everything. It is a great sci-fi novel. Anna Hackett creates a fascinating world that reminds you of the towns in Star Wars. There is lots to work with in future books. The hero and heroine are great. They’re both a bit alpha but neither is TSTL. Good narration and just the right amount of steam! So glad I found Anna Hackett.

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